An article in The Stranger about Charles Krafft says that the Seattle-based artist is a white nationalist who believes the Holocaust is a “myth.” Mr. Krafft’s work makes use of human cremains, swastikas and Third Reich imagery, elements that he claimed in a 2009 interview with Salon, quoted in The Stranger article, were a projection of “humorous irony.”

Mr. Krafft, 65, is a prominent artist in the Northwest. His work is included in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum, the Henry Art Gallery and the Museum of Northwest Art.

Jen Graves of The Stranger writes:

On July 28, 2012, [Krafft] participated (not for the first time) in a podcast produced by the white nationalist website The White Network, whose tagline is “Whites Talking to Whites About White Interests.” According to The White Network’s “about” page, “We recognize that different races and ethnic groups cannot live together in peace on the same soil, that Whites cannot and should not tolerate being governed by non-Whites.” The description goes on to say: “Jews are not White. They are obsessed with their own group’s best interests, not ours. Our network is and will always remain by, for, and about the best interests of Whites, and only Whites. We are uncompromising on this point. We do not hesitate to identify and criticize Jews and will not allow them to hide amongst us.”

On the podcast, Krafft says, “I believe the Holocaust is a myth,” and that the myth is “being used to promote multiculturalism and globalism.” He says he believes the Christian story of the sacrifice of one man (Jesus) is being trumped “by this new secular religion of the sacrifice of six million Jews. And the museums, memorials, monuments, study centers, Holocaust chairs at the universities—it’s all part of the promotion of a new kind of, like I said, civil religion maybe… We’re the heretics in a new religion that’s being promoted and built up and being embraced by governments throughout the United States and Europe.”

Sources in the article said “Krafft has laughed in private at the liberal-leaning art establishment he’s fooled with his art.”